Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision – Acts 12:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 8, 2014): Acts 12

Just over a week ago we celebrated Halloween. The Christian Church often finds itself divided on the issue of whether or not we should celebrate the holiday. And, yes, it is a pagan holiday that actually finds its roots as a Thanksgiving ritual. In ancient times, October 31 was considered to be the end of the harvest season, in fact Halloween’s original name was “Samhain,” a Gaelic word that simply means summers end. And the understanding is that this is a night when the boundary between the living and the dead is blurred. And this is actually where we get the tradition of going door to door collecting candy. Because the fabric between the living and the dead is thin on October 31, it was thought that on this night the visiting ghosts could disguise themselves in human form, such as a beggar, and knock on your door asking for money or food. If you turned them away empty-handed, you risked receiving the wrath of the spirit and being cursed or haunted. And so we entertain the ghosts and goblins knowing that most are false, but believing that, just maybe, some might be real.

And absolutely none of this lines up with Christianity. Yet, some of us celebrate Halloween anyway. For us, we celebrated Trunk and Treat in the field next door to the church by handing out candy from the trunks of our cars - and we hosted many little ghosts (and more than our share of superheroes and celebrities) giving out candy to all.

We have no idea what the date was of Peter’s encounter in prison, but it must have seemed like it was a time when the boundary between heaven and earth was thin. Peter is in prison and he is chained between two guards, and Peter thinks that he is simply having a dream. In this moment when every fibre of his being simply desires to be free, his dream simply reflects the desire of his heart. But then in the middle of the dream, Peter finds out that he is not dreaming- that the angels have really come down from heaven to free him.

I have to admit that I wonder how often this happens to us; how many times we are entertaining angels and we don’t even realize it. The reality is that we actually believe that heaven touches earth every day of the year, and not just during one pagan festival. We believe that God can and does interfere with the very fabric of our lives. The experience of Peter may be incredible, but I believe that it is one that we live more often than we realize – if we could only open our dreaming eyes and see all that God is accomplishing all around us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 13